24 Hours of Rural Sophistication in the Berkshires

Getting away is more than a pause from everyday life, it’s a needed restart from everyday existence. I live in a town where home upgrades and trading in cars happen in the same cycle as an annual checkup. Life becomes a constant rotation of contractors and car dealers. This is why traveling to the Berkshires for nature, history, and a slower-paced existence keeps you connected to simpler values. Even taking Route 7 north to the region is less manic than those urban edged-highways with billboards telling you to buy everything from a swimming pool to the best pizza in the county. The scenery offers gratuitous visions of historic structures and bucolic settings that take you back to vacation drives when you used Mad Libs to pass the time.

View from The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Lenox home that is a repose from the everyday.

The Berkshires have long been known as an artistic retreat for urbanites. It was the home of Norman Rockwell and Edith Wharton for a decade before she settled in Europe. It’s also the summer stomping ground of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where they entertain music enthusiasts at Tanglewood from July through August. This attracts visitors who have a keen interest in cultural activities in a quiet seasonal setting. There is also an abundance of churches, hiking trails and quaint shops to explore.

Scene from No. Six Depot that has an urban sensibility in a rustic locale.

On route we stopped at No. Six Depot Roastery and Cafe in West Stockbridge, an innovative eatery that roasts and produces their own coffee. On Mondays you may even see employees packaging the beans in the back. Though the delicacies are not exclusive to coffee. The updated railroad station, the oldest in the Berkshires, features an art gallery and farm-to-table menu helmed by South American Flavio Lichententhal. Lichententhal moved from Manhattan to the Berkshire’s with his wife, Lisa Landry, who oversees the tea and gallery. The No. Six Depot experience goes hand in hand with the Berkshires as a sensual escape.

: Urbanites will gravitate to this eatery.

: Hand-brewed tea.

: A mix of regulars and new visitors.

: Inventive menu.

: Dining space with an ever-changing display of art.

: Beans prepped for roasting.

: Ceviche served in a memorable broth.

: Outdoor seating and a ice cream hutch.

Following Lichententhal’s suggestion, we strolled across the street to Shaker Mill Books. Located in refurbished barns with a curated selection, the Taschen Rolling Stones limited edition the size of a wizard’s encyclopedia of spells gripped our attention. You may also watch a bookbinder keeping his craft alive over the scents of heavy paper and barn wood.

: Looking upward for some styled inspiration.

: The facade of Shaker Mill books.

: A clever idea on how to recycle old books.

Outdoor shelving and a place to read aside the barn.

There are a variety of places to stay In Lenox. On a grander scale Canyon Ranch and Cranwell offer spa and golf amenities, along with plenty of bed and breakfasts. We stayed at the Cornell Inn, which is near the hub of Lenox with comfortable rooms in period decor. You’ll always find a selection of coffee, teas or home baked muffins and cookies in the dining area but the breakfasts assure a satisfying start to a Berkshire day with eggs, pancakes, cereals, muffins, omelets, yogurt and fruit.

The Cornell Inn is a ballad to the area’s natural splendor and a simple yet refined approach to living.

When we arrived the smell of hazelnut coffee perked up our traveler-worn fatigue. Innkeepers Tim and Nell McCaffery greet you with full-on country hospitality, especially notable when my companion realized he forgot his shoes for a planned hike. Nell offered a pair discarded by a former guest. Says Tim, “We anticipate the guests’ needs and we try to think like a guest and say to ourselves, ‘What would we like if we were staying here?'” The Ramada this is not.

: The staircase with period details.

: Fresh fruit at breakfast.

: A bedroom in the inn.

: Rocking chairs in the from porch.

: A place to sit in one of the surrounding structures.

: The coffee and tea station..

: A pond of koi by the dining terrace.

: Located close to Lenox and Tanglewood.

By next morning we learn more about the McCaffery’s, who follow a similar narrative to Flavio and Lisa–urban sophisticates in search of a quieter life to raise a family, finding vocations by nurturing others–the overall mission we try to adopt on the trip. By interacting with people who have successfully found their Green Acres prompts us to linger a bit longer at the listings profiled in the windows of the real estate firms in town.

: The facade of Lenox’s Talbot’s.

: Catching an artist at work in her gallery.

: Morgan House for a satisfying dinner.

In the town of Lenox a free-standing Talbot’s brings me back to pre-Internet catalog shopping days. There are lively restaurants, shops and a gallery where we found Joan Palano Ciolfi painting–another example of catching an artist at work in their place of work. We dined at Morgan House in neighboring Lee for pub fare. The restaurant has preserved its 1853 authenticity, where I half expected patrons with muskets and buckled shoes to take the table across from us.

The Mount grips the beholder from its stately architecture and surrounding landscape.

Based on Tim’s analysis of our desired Berkshires itinerary, we decided to visit The Mount, Edith Wharton’s nearby home. The Mount is not your standard historic venue because you have more autonomy than your check-your-bags-for-arsenal rigmarole back in the city. We walked from the main lot to the home, imagining what it was like in Wharton’s time where she most likely traveled by a horse drawn carriage. We had a lively conversation with the attendant who made me entertain the possibility of ghosts, and let ourselves in through the back door entrance as if this were our own house. You truly learn the language of a personality by being in their home. The elegantly appointed rooms conveyed America’s version of Downton Abbey, while also confirming Wharton’s other skill as a tastemaker. (She wrote The Decoration of Houses in 1897 with Ogden Codman Jr.) The palette is less dreary and lighter than I expected and personal details abound. For one, Wharton had numerous lap dogs in her lifetime, as shown with dog beds placed here and there. She was a gracious hostess and entertained such guests as Henry James. We ended our self-guided tour in the European-inspired gardens.

A bedroom in The Mount has a softer palette and comfortable details that show Wharton’s attention to livable luxuries over the ostentation of the robber baron aesthetic that was prevalent of the times.

The Berkshires epitomize sophisticated bohemia, and Wharton’s home connects you to an author of considerable means and talent in a gilded time. She was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction, wrote such books as The House of Mirth and Age of Innocence, which resonate today.

: The second floor grand hallway.

: A dining area with a dog bed aside a chair.

: Lavish detail from the setting.

: A segment of the impeccably groomed gardens.

: Flowers in preparation for an event.

: The back door where we entered.

: A working space in the kitchen. The servants had their own staircase.

: Period linens evoke the time.

: Cooking tools displayed in situ.

: Feeling a connection with Wharton by exploring the gardens.

There are few expectations on a getaway: food, nature, comfort. The Berkshires delivers with the added caveat of coming home revitalized with a new approach. If there will be any home conversions build a yoga studio! I crave to see autumn’s take on the Berkshires in consideration of the foliage and such events as a Founder’s Weekend parade in Lee and Apple Squeeze. There’s also skiing close by (Butternut, Jiminey Peak), which marks The Berkshires as a year-round destination for those who want to break from their consumptive cultures to the quaint ideals this Massachusett’s region fiercely upholds.